The present invention relates to an electronic part supplying tape for holding electronic parts on a tape-like member at a constant pitch and supplying the electronic parts and a method of connecting an electronic part supplying tape.
In an electronic part mounting apparatus, according to a method of supplying an electronic part to a transfer head, there is provided an electronic part supplying tape (hereinafter, simply abbreviated as “carrier tape”) holding a number of electronic parts on a tape-like member. In the method, the carrier tape is supplied in a state of being wound around a supply reel, the carrier tape is extracted from the supply reel mounted on a tape feeder and fed pitch by pitch in synchronism with timings of mounting the electronic parts to thereby successively supply the electronic parts to a pickup position of the transfer head. Further, when shortage of part is brought about in the tape feeder in the mounting operation, a reel replacing operation for replacing the supply reel to a new one is carried out.
In a conventional art, when the reel is replaced, the operation is carried out in a state of removing a whole of a tape feeder main body from the mounting apparatus after stopping the mounting apparatus. However, in recent years, a method of connecting the carrier tape per se has been adopted, when the reel is replaced, in order to save wasteful time and man-hour caused by attaching and detaching the tape feeder by stopping the mounting apparatus at each time of bringing about shortage of part.
In the tape connecting operation, end portions of two new and old carrier tapes are aligned, and thereafter connected to each other by an adhesive tape or the like. In general, an exclusive connecting jig for carrying out the connecting operation is frequently used (for example, disclosed in JP-A-2000-289708 <Japanese Patent Application Publication Number: 2000-289708>). Further, in some cases, the connecting jig is not needed for connecting the end portions of the two carrier tapes (for example, disclosed in JP-A-10-101178 <Japanese Patent Application Publication Number: Hei10-101178>).
However, according to the above connecting jig (disclosed on JP-A-2000-289708), an operation of accurately matching alignment of the two carrier tapes and pitches of feed holes based on an outer shape or the feed hole of the carrier tape should be carried out, and the exclusive connecting jig is needed for each kind of the tape. Therefore, time and labor are required for carrying out the connecting operation. Particularly, when a number of kinds of tapes are mixedly used, complexity of using the connecting jigs according to the kinds for the respective tapes is unavoidable. Further, with regard to operational accuracy, depending on skill of an operator, proper jointing with accurate matching of the pitch or the alignment is not carried out, and there is a case of bringing about machine trouble in which tape feeding of the carrier tape after connection is not normally carried out.
Further, according to a method of connecting carrier tapes by fitting embossed portion for containing parts to each other as shown in JP-A-10-101178, the tapes can be jointed only in a case in which the embossed portion is of a specific shape, and this method is not applicable to a normal case in which a number of kinds of carrier tapes are used. In this way, according to the carrier tapes of the conventional arts, there poses a problem that it is difficult to efficiently carry out tape connecting operation, when the reels are replaced in accordance with shortage of part.